A few of my proudest accomplishments as your council representative.
✪ Volunteering veterinary medicine, visiting the relief shelter twice weekly in Pahoa during the lava event.
✪ Delivering animal feed, flea collars, and pet supplies for displaced animals and their owners from the lava disaster.
✪ Getting the Hilo processing plant re-opened and securing small livestock producer's ability to process their meat. This was not a trivial task; it required sorting out the situation, meeting with Elected Federal Leaders and Top USDA/FSIA Department heads while in D.C. on another matter to efficiently solving a significant issue for Big Island agriculture.
✪ Bringing the livestock shipping groups together to collaborate on a cohesive plan with Young Brothers.
✪ Serving on the NACo Board of Directors; representing Hawai‘i County and the State of Hawai‘i at the national level. Member of NACO’s Environment, Energy, and Land Use (EELU) Steering Committee. Vice-chair of the Water subcommittee of the Healthy Counties Initiative Advisory Board. Vice-chair of Parks, Open Spaces, and Trails subcommittee of the Healthy Counties Initiative Advisory Board.
✪ Facilitated the securing of $60 million lava event relief funds from the Hawai‘i State Legislature.
✪ My relentless and continual advocacy for agriculture at the county, state, and federal levels.
✪ Worked with Mayor Kim and the County Director of Finance to secure $10 million CIP funding for the Waikoloa Road and Paniolo Avenue Junction and the resurfacing of Paniolo Avenue.
✪ During COVID-19, I created the Big Island Rural Agricultural Industries, Distribution, and Growing Enterprise Strategies (BRIDGES) project in collaboration with the Hawai‘i Farm Bureau to support local agriculture through feeding our communities. BUILT BRIDGES: A project to feed the community by buying local ag products during COVID-19. Brainstormed and went out and put the Bridges project to work, getting private foundations to donate $150,000 to immediately purchase food from farmers and distribute the food Island wide through the Food Basket and other non-profit community groups solving a-void that helped farmers/ranchers and fed our Community. Read more in the West Hawaii Today Media Article.
✪ Provided for the County’s Environmental Management Commission and the Department of Environmental Management a clean slate to collaborate and develop a plan for waste stream management and reduction technologies to include renewable and alternative energy generation for the County of Hawai‘i. (Resolution No. 301-19)
✪ Collaborated with the food market and service industry to address the termination of the County’s recycling program and subsequently making entities unable to comply with the Ordinance. Prepared and passed Bill 74, Draft 2 to establish Ordinance No. 19-85, which amended Chapter 20, Article 6, of the Hawai‘i County Code relating to Polystyrene Foam food containers and food service ware reduction to allow the food industry options to comply with Ordinance while providing for our island state.